


Take Custody Of My Heart

by 5secondsoflashton



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: 5SOS Fic Exchange, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Custody Battle, Fluff, M/M, Pining, lawyer!Luke, single dad!ashton
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-18
Updated: 2015-07-18
Packaged: 2018-04-09 11:55:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4347737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/5secondsoflashton/pseuds/5secondsoflashton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke, a child custody lawyer, takes on the case of Ashton, a scared single father, who after a rocky divorce with his ex-wife, is fighting for custody over his daughter, Lily.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take Custody Of My Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cherryraindrops](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherryraindrops/gifts).



> (If anyone reposts this anywhere - i'm looking to you some crazy people of wattpad - things will not end well)
> 
> I have slaved over this for a few weeks now, so I'm hoping this is hella good. (It's hella long somehow).
> 
> To the lovely lucasashtons, I hope you like this and hopefully meets up to any expectation you had for this! I apologise for it being heavily angsty, when you may have wanted the majority fluff, but I gave it a good shot! I'm a huge fan of your writing, so that heavily motivated me as I went, so I hope I don't disappoint.
> 
> I also have a graphic for this fic posted up on my [tumblr](http://fuck-yeah-georgeshelley.tumblr.com) (fuck-yeah-georgeshelley), which you can reblog and like if you wish!
> 
> A playlist is also up on my [8tracks](http://8tracks.com/lxshton) (lxshton) and there's a rebloggable post (or will be one) on my tumblr too, so please check that out if you want to.
> 
> Apologies now for any inaccuracies to do with court proceedings etc. Although I did do research, I'm bound to have done something wrong, so sorry for that.
> 
> Anyway, enough of this, I hope you all enjoy reading this and any other fic exchange piece you read.
> 
> Feel free to leave me comments and kudos here, or send them to my Tumblr [ask.](http://fuck-yeah-georgeshelley.tumblr.com/ask) I will ensure I reply to them all :)

The benefits of being your own boss were great: full control over your work hours, nobody else bossing you around, the ability to be extremely independent. So when Luke became a lawyer, he knew being a sole practitioner was what he wanted.

He managed to scrape by throughout his time at law school, wanting no more than to just be out in the world defending people from getting shit they didn’t deserve. The amount of joy he felt when he finished aged twenty-five was unreal.

Now nearing twenty-seven years of age, Luke had built quite a reputation for himself. He practiced solely to avoid the pressures of working in a law firm, whether big or small, pushing down on him; it was easier to work to his own goals and deal with everything himself.

In terms of specialities, the twenty-six year old was seen as the best lawyer in Sydney in terms of child custody battles. Grief stricken mothers, fathers, guardians, sometimes even teenage children themselves, would turn up at his office door looking for a representative. His fees were fairly low for someone of his quality, but Luke wanted to appeal to everyone and anyone.

In terms of his current case, Luke had just won a battle for an estranged grandparent, who spent most of her time looking after her grandchild, while her son and his partner were deemed unfit to look after the child.

This left Luke on a definite high; he loved to get the right result for the people he represented. In the end, the money he received had nothing on that.

Since that had just ended, he had to wait for work to come to him, although he still had some paperwork to occupy himself with for the time being as that needed an extensive looking over.

The man’s office was a small place above a few shops in the middle of a busy shopping area. It only had enough room for his office and a tiny kitchen area. There was a shared bathroom with other shop owners nearby too, so he and his clients were able to take a break there if needed in meetings.

Currently working at his desk, Luke stopped typing to take a breather; paperwork was fairly draining. He grasped a mug of coffee in his hand from beside him, sipping avidly at the liquid.

His eyes fell on the pictures on his desk, a few keepsakes from his house to make his office feel a bit more homely. The first picture was of him, blond hair long around his face and stark blue eyes shining, along with his two best friends, Michael and Calum. Luke had known the pair since he was in secondary school and somehow, the two dorks found a way into his heart.

A second picture was next to it: one of his family and him as a child. It was one of the few pictures he had of them all, due to the fact his parents died young. Luke was still close to his two brothers, Jack and Ben, but only managed to see them for long enough on holidays.

The office bell ringing startled Luke out of his thoughts, leading him to accept whoever was requesting access to enter his office. He immediately smartened himself up at the thought of a potential client.

To say Luke was in awe of the stranger who came through the door was an understatement. The man who appeared had eyes the colour of aged whiskey and a mop of honey curls on his head. Luke definitely found him attractive (even if he wasn’t gay, but infact straight, he was sure he’d want to have sex with him) but knew to stay strictly professional; a simple attraction to a client was not going to make much of a difference.

“Hello there, Sir. My name’s Luke Hemmings. Is there anything I can help you with?” Luke asked, rising from his desk to hold a hand out to the man, who was sheepishly rocking on his feet.

He was greeted by a firm grip from the stranger, a soft, but serious smile on his lips.

“I’m Ashton Irwin. I came here, because I need a lawyer and I’ve heard you’re the best in the custody battle area. I need some help,” The man – Ashton – said.

Luke nodded sharply at Ashton, motioning towards the seat in front of his desk for him to sit in, as well as offering the man a coffee. Ashton politely declined, accepting the seat and waiting for Luke to round the desk and sit back in his own.

“So, why don’t you briefly explain the situation to me, Mr Irwin? I can see how I’d be able to help and represent you and draw up some ideas of fees if you decide to accept my help.”

At Luke’s question, Ashton begun telling his story: a recently ex-wife trying to take sole custody of their child, Lily. Luke could see by the way Ashton’s face lit up when he spoke about his daughter that he was clearly dedicated to getting some form of custody.

After his explanation, Luke decided he’d take the case, drawing up Ashton some fees and other documents, before they finalised it.

Luke was to represent Ashton in his attempt to keep or share custody of Lily.

-

“Thanks for coming, Luke. I’m sure Lily will be perfectly fine with you, I just need her to get used to you since you’ll be around a lot.”

The blond had turned up to Ashton’s house the day after sorting out their agreement. The two of them had managed to get along well professionally and Luke couldn’t help but think that Ashton seemed like a really cool guy underneath his serious exterior yesterday. Seeing him now just added to those thoughts.

Luke was led through the house by Ashton until they reached the back garden where a small child with hair curlier than Ashton’s was sat playing with some teddies on the grass.

“Sweetheart, the man I was telling you about is here. Come and say hi,” Ashton said, his daughter looking up with wide green eyes and comes wobbling over.

After mulling it over in his head, Luke assumed Lily was about four, and started thinking over how this could affect the case, thinking about the time Ashton must’ve been with his ex-wife. However, he pushed that aside when Lily was lifted into Ashton’s arms and was turning towards him.

“Hi, I’m Lily.” The girl looked sheepishly at Luke.

“Hey, I’m Luke. I’m here to help out your daddy with some things.”

“Oh, Lily! Why don’t you bring your teddies inside, so you can have a drink with Luke and I? It’d be nice for us all to get to know one another?” Ashton suggested, placing Lily down, who was now more energetic than shy.

“Of course, Daddy. Can I have chocolate milk?” Lily began to head over to her items, before she’d even received a reply.

Luke heard Ashton agree, before Lily was squealing and rushing to grab all her stuff to bring inside.

“She’s full of energy, isn’t she?” Luke chuckled, turning to Ashton, who smiled and nodded.

Once Lily had acquired her things, Luke followed Ashton and her back inside the house and into the living room. Ashton briefly left to fetch Lily her promised chocolate milk, leaving Luke to get to know the girl.

“I like your clothes.” Lily poked at Luke’s professional attire; he was clad in a smart suit and tie.

“Aw thanks, I really love your little unicorn clip in your hair.” Luke gave a response in full honesty; he actually quite liked unicorns.

Lily beamed back at him, beginning to chat to the blond about her selection of teddies and each of their names. Luke could feel himself growing to love her even in those short few minutes that Ashton had left them alone.

When Ashton returned with Lily’s milk, the group sat around conversing about the things they loved and Luke found a lot in common with both Ashton and his daughter. He found himself longing to hang out with them like this again, but knew things needed to stay on track if he was to get Ashton what he needed – what he deserved.

“Hey, Ashton-” Luke had dropped calling him Mr Irwin, after he’d asked to be called simply by his first name instead. “-why don’t we arrange further meetings?”

\--

“Luke!” The twenty-six year old laughed, as Lily came running towards him at the sound of his name.

It was a week after Luke had taken on the case with Ashton and he’d been busy ensuring when the interim date was scheduled with the court, and had enquired about when the final hearing was likely to be in the year.

After Lily had hugged his legs despite the fact it was only the second time they’d met, Ashton came over, a maroon coloured beanie pulled over his curls and a timid smile on his lips.

“Hey, Lils, I just need to talk with Luke a second, so why don’t you go play with your teddies on the grass where we placed our blanket, okay?” Ashton asked his daughter, watching fondly as she followed his questioning.

Once out of sight, Luke began explaining the interim date and what Ashton should expect from it: proposal of what custody was being fought for, brief reasons why, settlement of custody until the final hearing.

Currently, Luke knew that Ashton and his ex were sharing Lily’s custody to half a week each, days depending on when each of them was free. Luke didn’t see why Ashton’s ex had a problem with this, as from what he could tell already, Ashton was a great father.

Maybe she was just intimidated by that or was holding a grudge ever since they divorced; Luke assumed Ashton would tell him why soon, if he even knew.

The pair of them discussed a few more court issues, but Luke decided that most of it could wait till another day, as after all, they had about two weeks until the date. That’s when they headed back over to where Lily was a few feet away.

The girl bounded up onto her feet when they approached, rushing towards her dad to show him what she’d done with her teddies. Luke followed slowly behind, watching the way Ashton’s face lit up when talking to his daughter, hazel eyes almost becoming fiery.

That was another reason Luke was here with the pair today: he needed to observe Ashton and Lily together to help himself gain some ground in court and understand how the pair worked to defend them at any possible moment.

Luke needed as much information on the pair’s relationship as possible and any and everything about why Ashton was a perfect fit to have custody of his daughter, even to go as far as why he was better than his ex; there was possibly a case where only sole custody was given to one of the two and Luke was going to make sure that was Ashton.

While Ashton and Lily were playing around together, Luke took some time to reflect on his own life and possible plans for children. He’d always wanted a child once he was in a long standing, stable relationship, but he’d only ever had a couple of those in his life and all when he was way too young.

The blond once thought about having children with his ex-girlfriend when he was eighteen. He was very loved up and thought to the future, but didn’t even realise that he was suppressing his inner sexuality.

When Luke came out as gay, everyone was rather supportive. Of course, you got the odd asshole who would ridicule Luke, but whoever he was out with at the time would defend him to the end. This lead to another serious relationship with a man during his time at law school, but they ultimately cut it off, when they both needed and decided to focus on their work and education.

Seeing Ashton now with Lily made his heart swell slightly; he always loved seeing his client and the child(ren) they were fighting for custody of. They always treated them so well and so lovingly. It was so fascinating to see them interact.

It didn’t take long for Luke to be knocked out of his state of thought by Lily, who was now pulling on his jeans (he’d dressed down for the day in a pair of black skinny jeans, rather than his usual suit trousers) and beckoning him to join her and Ashton.

Of course, Luke obliged. This was what he was here for after all. All he had to do was watch their behaviour and get a good idea on their relationship. There was some paperwork he needed to do at some point with Ashton, which was stashed away inside the briefcase he brought with him, albeit out of place with his casual wear and the park setting.

There was no chance in hell he’d screw this up.

\--

Ok, maybe there was a slight chance in hell Luke would screw up.

After he’d joined Ashton and Lily, the man had forgotten all about the paperwork that needed to be filled in that day and had ended up messing around with the pair. He couldn’t help it when Ashton had flashed a grateful smile at him, when Lily giggled along to something Luke had said.

It was now the day after and Luke had a day off; he was meeting Ashton again in a few days time after they’d agreed to do the paperwork then, when Luke called saying he’d forgotten.

For now though, he was collecting several pizzas from the man at the door, paying him, before he entered the living room to find his two best friends messing around on the couch.

“The last garlic dip is mine, Calum. I put dibs on this like two weeks ago when we got it. So fucking let go, before I kick you in the balls.”

“Mike, I swear to God, if your foot goes anywhere near my balls-“

“Well give me the dip then!”

Luke sighed, watching as Calum and Michael continued to roll around, before the dip fell onto the floor and neither seemed to notice. The blond took this as his queue to pick it up.

“Do you both not want pizza?”

Michael and Calum’s heads turned to look at Luke in a snap moment when he spoke, glancing down at the pizzas in his hand.

“Hey, where’s the dip gone?” Calum asked, finally noticing it wasn’t in his hand. His eyes then fell on Luke’s hand. “Luke, come on, give me the dip.”

“No, that’s mine. Luke?” A pout soon protruded on Michael’s face.

“Guys, you do remember each pizza has one in the corner of the box?”

It was amusing how both of the men’s faces glowed at that and were frantically pulling the pizzas from Luke’s hands to find their own. Even though both were aged twenty-seven, they still managed to be immature at times; Luke wouldn’t have it any other way though.

Once they were all settled, Calum and Michael with their dips each, eating contently, conversation soon turned to Luke’s job.

“How’s the case going, Luke?” Luke was almost disgusted by the pizza practically falling out of Michael’s mouth when he spoke. “Is your client a hot single man you can fuck?”

At his friend’s words, Luke almost spat out his pizza, but resisted and pretended in his mind that he really wouldn’t fuck Ashton if he was given the chance (he really would).

“Michael, I’m not going to have sex with my clients-” Michael opened his mouth to protest, but Luke continued. “-and you know I can’t tell you much, confidentiality and all that, but I am working with a single dad and his daughter and they really deserve to win this case.”

Calum nodded. “Well let’s hope you win for them, Hemmings.”

Luke gave Calum a smile and nod. Calum was always more serious than Michael and it’d been that way since the day they met. They all just balanced each other out.

Everyone went silent, while they ate their pizza, until Michael decided to speak up. “Are you sure you won’t fuck him? You said he was single.”

And Luke should’ve expected that.

\--

The next time Luke meets up with Ashton it’s at the father’s house. Lily was in school and was staying at her mum’s today, so the two decided now would be the best time for them to begin on paperwork and discuss any further issues before the interim, which was now only a week or so away.

Luke dressed in his professional clothing this morning, hoping it would help him focus better on getting stuff done and not getting distracted, like he did last time they tried this. Thankfully, Lily, the bundle of sunshine, wasn’t here to throw him off his focus.

However, Ashton was likely to take her place, although for different reasons. The man was sporting an open-sided, black tank top, which allowed Luke to get a good look at his biceps (how the fuck were they so huge?) and appreciate the tan skin he could see. A pair of glasses rested on top of Ashton’s nose as well and how was it fair he could pull those two items off together?

Currently, the two men were seated at Ashton’s dining room table, an abundance of papers spread across the table, some that were complete and some that were yet to be discussed.

Luke’s eyes were still often glancing at Ashton throughout their time filling in the papers (Ashton was on filling in details about him and Lily, while Luke checked over any forms Ashton had already done to make sure they were fit for court) and it wasn’t just because of Ashton’s good looks.

The older man (Luke had found out that Ashton was twenty-eight, almost twenty-nine) was looking rather distressed, whilst filling in sheets and seemed to not be having a good day in general. Luke wondered what may be up, but simply assumed the stress of having to go through this custody battle was doing quite a number on Ashton; it was understandable really.

Ignoring his concerns, as for starters Ashton was only his client and he needed some form of professional distance, and also if Ashton needed to voice his stressors then Luke was sure he would, Luke continued on with everything and the day was drawing to a close when he and Ashton had finished up.

It was at that point, since they finished a little earlier than planned, that Ashton offered Luke to stay for a drink, which Luke decided to accept, so the pair moved from the more formal setting of the kitchen table, to the comfortable couch.

It was silent for a bit, while Ashton was getting them drinks. Luke took this time to check the surroundings of the room. This was another thing he needed to briefly check with Ashton. The court would look at the stability of housing when choosing who gains physical custody, so any possible hazards of the house needed to be dealt with and fixed if needed.

When Ashton entered the living room, Luke wasn’t really prepared for it when he began talking.

“I feel like I should tell you about my past with Brittany – that’s my ex-wife - since it will probably help you get a feel for the case more. Brit and I got together when I was twenty-two and we had Lily two years later. We fell in love so fast and things moved quite quickly for us. We were unconventional in many ways; Brit proposed to me rather than the stereotype of man to woman.

“At the point when Lily was born, I was still very much in love with Brittany as I was when we met, but I just felt myself falling further out of love with her as time passed.

“Around a year and a half ago, we started getting a bit more spiteful with each other and decided it was best to get a divorce; Lily didn’t deserve the two of us doing that all the time. It just wasn’t a good household for us to raise a child.

“The divorce was only finalised a few months ago, and that was around when Brittany started dropping hints about wanting the sole custody of Lily and eventually I got a letter in the post and – fuck, Luke, I’ve never been so scared.”

Luke watched as Ashton ran his hands through his curls, his face scrunched up slightly in what seemed like distress. He was about to offer a calming word, or at least attempt at one, but Ashton was talking again, his voice being conclusive.

“It’s my entire fault that I’m in this mess. I shouldn’t – never mind that. Just I’m glad you’re representing me, Luke. I just need to keep some contact of Lily.”

\--

It didn’t take long for the interim date came around. Luke had woken up earlier to get to the court house, so he could pass on Ashton’s official statement, that he wanted joint custody and anything else that was written.

Ashton soon turned up to the court room, dressed sharply in a suit, as he made his way towards Luke. Brittany and her lawyer had arrived a few minutes before (Lily was in school and didn’t need to be present for the hearing) and were sat inside the room, waiting on their turn to be called; many other cases were going on and each had to wait their turn.

“You ready for this, Ashton? It won’t be too long and nothing too draining. There’s no cross examination till the final hearing, just the sorting out of Lily’s custody arrangements until then. They’re bound to just keep it the same, as it’s stable and working for now.”

Luke watched as Ashton nodded, and his Adam’s apple bobbed, as he gulped with what seemed to be nerves. The younger of the two then lead the way into the courtroom, finding a space near the back and sitting there with Ashton.

For the time being, there was another interim going on with another family, and the statements were being read out to the opposite parties by the judicial officer.

Luke was extremely used to this atmosphere. Being a family lawyer was his main area of defence, so he often dealt with scenarios such as these. Final court hearings were always a lot louder and much more heated, especially as objections and estranged family members could rock the balance.

As the people currently being seen to seemed to be drawing to a close, Luke turned to look at Ashton to offer another word of encouragement or advice, but stopped when he saw the man’s leg nervously moving up and down, his hand jittering atop his knee.

Deciding maybe a full verbal approach was not a good idea, Luke placed his hand atop Ashton’s briefly, which stopped his shaking and also gained the curly haired man’s attention, his eyes now wide as he stared at Luke.

“Seriously, don’t worry about this. It’s going to be fine. We have plenty of time to prepare for the final hearing anyway and I swear to you I will try my absolute hardest to ensure you have at least half of the custody of your little girl.” Luke finished his statement with a soft smile.

Luke could tell Ashton was about to respond to him by the opening of his mouth, but the current case was over and the judge was calling out for “Mr Irwin and Ms York.”

Once he’d removed his hand from Ashton’s, he lead the way down to the table on one side of the room that Brittany and her lawyer had not occupied.

The court proceedings then went through their usual motions, before it was time for the statement reading. Ashton’s was read out first that Luke was pleased with; he had written it with Ashton a few days prior. The statement outlined that Ashton wanted joint physical and legal custody of Lily, whereby the parents stuck to a similar schedule they were now; he wanted nothing to change. His rationale was that it was only fair they both had the same part in Lily’s upbringing.

Next was Brittany’s penned statement, in which it was stated that she was aiming for sole custody in terms of physical and legal and only wanted Ashton to see Lily on the odd day a week if that. Now this was anticipated by Luke, but maybe not quite to the extreme of that. He noticed how Ashton tensed up beside him during the statements read out.

The shocking part for Luke was the rationale behind it.

To sum it up, the statement from Brittany said that Ashton was an unfit father and shouldn’t be in charge of any important aspect of Lily’s life.

Luke could tell the impact that had on Ashton, when he noticed his balled fists, and likely how he wanted to shout out and defend himself. This wasn’t the time for that, but now they knew Brittany’s claim, they could work to counteract that.

The judge was then talking about arrangements for Lily until the final hearing and decided that, as Luke predicted, keeping things the same with their lawyers ensuring it was fair, despite their rivalry of parties. They both had the child’s best interests at heart, so would make sure this was stuck to.

It wasn’t long before their case was dismissed and they were told a final court hearing would be put in and they would be informed of the time.

Luke watched as Ashton practically ran out of the room, possibly with rage, so he hurriedly followed after him, hoping he’d be able to calm him down.

However, that was to no avail, as when Luke walked through the doors to the courtroom entrance, Brittany and her lawyer were both walking through the other doors and Ashton had clearly set his eyes on them.

“Brit, are you serious?! I’m an unfit father?! You know I love Lily with all my heart and would never treat her unfairly,” Ashton said, managing to keep his voice at around a normal level to not disturb anyone milling around.

“Mr Irwin-” Luke decided using formal terms was best around the other party. “- I’d advise against doing this now.”

Luke knew Ashton could jeopardise his case right here. Brittany’s lawyer could probably use any hard evidence he could get to prove the claim in the statement and Ashton acting up now would only add to that.

“Are you seriously kidding me right now, Ashton?” Brittany’s lawyer attempted to stop her too, but the woman continued on. “Do you not remember all those times you’d work and work and work and completely forget Lily and I existed? You were barely ever home, Ashton. What’s the point in Lily staying with you, if you’d only be with her irregularly? She needs someone permanent in her life, and I’m sorry, but that’s me.”

It was at that point that Brittany took her leave, her lawyer scuffling along behind her, leaving Ashton and Luke in the shadow of her wake.

Luke was feeling slightly pissed at Brittany, for obvious reasons, but also at Ashton for failing to mention any of this to him earlier. This was a fairly big thing, which, with enough evidence, the court could get swayed Brittany’s way.

“You could’ve mentioned all of that to me before, Ashton. I need you to be completely transparent with me, even with the negative things. We need to be able to counteract her claims.”

A pair of frantic hazel eyes were soon looking into Luke’s blue and Luke swore he could see Ashton tearing up.

“Ok, fine. For a while, I was working full time as an events planner and I barely got time off of work. But we needed the money! Brittany was doing volunteer work, and was barely doing any of that so she could care for Lily. What was I supposed to do? Let us all starve?

“I regret that time so badly. I never got to see some of Lily’s firsts, like talking. I eventually moved to shorter hours, when Brittany got a part-time job on the side, so we could pay for things. I don’t understand why she can blame me! Without me, she and Lily would be nowhere.”

Ashton swiped at his eyes, while Luke mulled over his words. Now he’d gotten the full story, there was a good chance he could use some of this to support Ashton’s case: he has good financial prospects, is willing to support his child (and then wife) and is clearly stable in that sense. However, he can see how and why Brittany could use it too.

“Well, let’s not worry about this now, okay? We can talk about it another time, but please, next time we chat, get anything and everything off of your chest that could be beneficial for your case or could be used against you, Ashton.”

In return to Luke’s words, Ashton gave a quick nod, before announcing his departure, telling Luke he’d call him to arrange further meetings.

That left Luke to watch Ashton go, wondering how they were going to fix this mess.

\--

About a week after the interim hearing, Luke was at Ashton’s again. Lily was there too, as it was a weekend and it happened to be one of Ashton’s days to take care of her. Luke hadn’t seen her in a while, so he was fairly happy to see the girl’s smile and cheery laughter when he entered the house that morning.

Unanimously, Luke and Ashton had decided to start around lunchtime, because Lily was dragging them into the living room with her so that they could watch _My Little Pony_. Luke couldn’t bring himself to deny Lily of that and he was sure her father felt the same way, so they all ended up sandwiched in on the couch.

Lily was avidly explaining all the characters to Luke (the blond guessed that Ashton had sat and watched it with Lily many times so he was already very informed on the subject matter) and her love for each of them. It was endearing, her obsession with ponies and unicorns.

Halfway through one of the episodes that Lily was extremely into, leaning forward in her seat on the couch, Ashton’s phone began to ring, and Luke noticed the older man step out of the room to take the call.

When he came back, he bore a sombre look on his face and was grabbing his coat from the back of the door.

“Luke, would you do me a huge favour? My boss just called and he needed desperate help sorting out a wedding reception for this afternoon, so could you stay here and look after Lily?” Ashton paused, shaking his head after a few seconds. “I mean, you don’t have to. I’m sure I could take her to my mum’s, that’s only like a half an hour drive. Yeah, don’t worry, Luke, it’ll be-”

“It’s fine, Ashton. I don’t mind at all. I’ll do some paperwork on the house and see if we need to sort anything out about it while you’re gone. I’ll take care of Lily too, of course.”

Luke watched as a sigh of relief left through Ashton’s parted lips, before it quickly changed into a soft smile. He thanked Luke briefly, and then walked over to where his daughter was sat on the couch.

“Lily, sweetie, Daddy’s gotta go to work, okay? Luke’s going to look after you until I get back. Be a good girl for him, no playing up.” Lily nodded at Ashton’s words. “Okay, sweetheart, I love you. See you later.”

The two embraced, before Ashton was grabbing anything he needed and bolting out of the door, leaving Luke and Lily in his wake, _My Little Pony_ still playing on the TV.

It didn’t take long for Lily to get engrossed in the TV again, not even acknowledging Luke’s presence anymore due to it. This lead to Luke deciding that surveying the house would be good to do now, while Lily didn’t need him present.

He announced this to Lily, explaining he was just going to be wandering around the house and if she needed him to give him a shout and he’d be there.

Since Luke was already in the living room, he decided to start there, minding not to disturb Lily. He checked any plug sockets to ensure they were tightly fixed to the wall and wouldn’t result in electrocution if Lily happened to play around with them.

When finding nothing that would be an issue in there, Luke took to looking around the rest of Ashton’s modern house. In the kitchen, he found the possible hazard of knives, as Ashton hadn’t put them far enough back on the work top. This was easily fixed, leading Luke to push them back to the wall.

By the time he’d gotten upstairs, that was all he’d found and when he came across Lily’s room he was intrigued by it all. Her walls were painted a pale yellow and there were some unicorn stickers stuck to a wooden wardrobe. In the corner of the room, there was a huge pile of teddies, and at the top of the pile, Luke could see the ones Lily was playing with on the day they met.

One thing that caught Luke’s eye was the framed picture beside Lily’s bed. He grasped it in his hands and couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he saw a slightly younger Ashton holding baby Lily in his arms. He was a beautiful sight, tears of happiness in his eyes, his curly hair pulled back into a bun at the back of his head. He was cradling Lily so delicately in his arms and shit, how could anyone ever thing Ashton was an unfit father?

“Luke! It’s lunchtime. Can we get lunch, please?”

On hearing Lily clamber her way up the stairs to find him, Luke placed the frame back down, and headed out to find her. (She was stuck halfway up the stairs and didn’t want to go any farther on her own, so Luke carried her down and into the kitchen.)

“What do you want to eat? I don’t know what food your daddy has, so you need to let me know where things are.”

Lily asked Luke if she could have jam sandwiches, which Luke was glad for, since truthfully, he wasn’t a good cook, so if she’d asked for anymore he may be slightly fucked.

Deciding on having some for himself too and hoping Ashton wouldn’t mind, Luke asked Lily to sit at the table while he made the food, the girl pointing out which cupboards things were in when needed.

Once he was done, he cut Lily’s sandwiches into four mini triangles and handed the girl the plate, which she happily accepted, thanking Luke, as the man sat in the seat across from her.

“Mmm, these are good! Much better than when Daddy makes them, but don’t tell him that though, he may get jealous of you.” Lily giggled afterwards, and Luke responded with a smile.

The two of them ate while having a fast paced conversation; Lily was asking Luke a lot of different questions about his job and home life. 

Occasionally, Luke got to ask Lily a question of his own, such as her favourite foods and other favourites, but most of their chat was Luke simply giving Lily an answer.

"Okay, Lily, is there anything you’d like for dessert?" They’d both just stopped eating at that point and Luke was clearing up their plates as he asked.

"Brownies! Daddy was going to make brownies with me the next time I was here, so can we make them, Lukey?" Luke flushed at the nickname Lily had just given him.

"I guess that should be fine. I’m just going to ring your daddy first to double check."

After asking Lily to wait at the table for him, Luke quickly rang Ashton, who seemed very busy with his work, but gave him the go ahead for making brownies. He also explained to Luke that he’d be home in a couple of hours and couldn’t thank Luke enough for taking care of his daughter. The lawyer expressed that it was no problem, before hanging up and returning to Lily.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to collect all they needed for the brownies. There was a brownie mix to be used, which decreased the number of ingredients needed and made it slightly easier for them to not fuck it all up.

When dealing with the mixing, Luke brought the bowl down to the table so Lily could reach and helped the girl stir it, as she was going a bit slowly and recklessly on her own. 

Eventually, the brownie mixture was poured into a tray and was into the oven. Luke decided it was best for him and Lily to stay in the kitchen to keep an eye on the oven for the time being, so he sent Lily to bring whatever she liked downstairs.

Of course, the blond should’ve guessed that Lily would bring her teddies down (she didn’t get stuck halfway up the stairs this time) and he felt Lily’s pride when Luke remembered all their names.

After some time playing with the teddies, the brownies were cooked, cut up and Luke gave a small piece to Lily and saved some for himself. They took a seat at the table again.

"These are absolutely great. Thanks, Lukey, you’re like my second daddy! You could be my papa: Papa Luke!" 

Luke’s face paled slightly, as the shock of Lily’s words caught up to him. He’d never been in a situation like this before; none of his other clients’ children had ever referred to him as a father figure let alone a second father. It saddened him too, because Luke adored Lily so much and just spending this time with her today had made him fall in love with the girl, and also because soon Luke would be gone. Once the case is over, Luke would have no more obligations to have relations with Lily or her father. It would just break the girl’s heart.

Deciding on avoiding that, as he didn’t want to encourage Lily, but also didn’t want to dishearten her, he suggested that they went to the living room and found something to watch once she was done eating her brownie. 

With Lily’s agreement and then picking of _The Little Mermaid_ to watch, Luke somehow ended up with Lily asleep on his lap, as Ariel was just clambering onto the beach on screen. 

About five minutes after that, Ashton was walking into the room with a tense look, his eyes softening slightly the moment he saw his daughter asleep in Luke’s arms.

"Hey, I hope she’s been no trouble. Thank you for looking after her."

"She’s been perfect, Ashton." Luke watched as some tension left Ashton’s brows. "Come sit down, mate, you look exhausted."

Luke noticed Ashton’s hesitance, before he sat down in the seat next to Luke offering to take Lily into his arms instead. Luke declined saying he was fine for now, which led to Ashton leaning into Luke’s side unconsciously, his head brushing Luke’s shoulder.

The domesticity of this made Luke’s heart pick up and a blush to dust his cheeks. He couldn’t help but wonder what every day with Ashton and Lily would be like and – No, stop thinking now, Hemmings.

Fuck everything, Luke was getting too attached to the Irwins and he didn’t know what to do.

\--

“You have milk, right, Luke?” Luke nodded in response to Ashton’s question.

It was around two weeks after the incident where Luke had to look after Lily last minute, and he and Ashton had few meetings since. They’d gone over a lot of stuff that needed to be done and the letter about the final court hearing date hadn’t been posted yet; it would likely be in a few months time.

Once again, the lawyer was at his client’s house, with Lily not being present, as she was staying with Brittany. This made the house a bit quieter, but Luke and Ashton had warmed up to each other a lot more over their past few meetings, sometimes going heavily off topic and talking about their lives. Luke knew he should stop that, getting too close to Ashton was only going to fuck things up, but he couldn’t help it, not when Ashton was giggling along to some of the things he said.

Soon, Ashton was bringing his coffee into the living room, where they’d decided to chat and work. It was early in the evening and the sky outside was a slight orange, the sun only now setting. This was the latest the two men had met up, but it was the only time they could fit a meeting in so they worked with what they had.

“Okay, Ashton, since I think we’ve got most of the paperwork done, maybe we should go over a few statements and forms to check everything is correct and up-to-date.”

Luke received a sharp nod as a reply, so pulled out several forms and went through them, reading them out and allowing Ashton to let him know if the information was correct or if anything needed amending. The forms ranged from Lily’s details to Ashton’s financial situation. The court needed a lot of things to decide whether Ashton was fit enough to be Lily’s legal custodian.

Ashton’s statement on what custody he wanted was left until last by Luke and when he got to it, he read it back out to Ashton, much like the judge had in court. The blond thought Ashton may have thought of that time too, when he tensed up slightly beside him, his hand gripping the mug of coffee tighter.

“Are your reasoning and wanting for joint custody, physical and legal, the same?” Luke looked to Ashton to gain and response, a typical nod, but he couldn’t help the curiosity that overcame him. “Why is that? I mean, I get a lot of it sure, Ashton, but I’m curious to the whole story.”

At first, Luke thought Ashton may not open up to him, feared he pushed too far, as, after all, Ashton was only obliged to tell him what he needed for the statement, nothing about the inner workings of his mind and beyond his feelings on the surface.

Ashton eventually spoke up, however, his voice strong and a sense of surety within it. “As I’ve said, it wouldn’t be fair on Brittany at all if I tried to take Lily away from her. She’s a great mum and Lily needs her in her life. I want things to stay like they are now, Luke. I like things like this. Yeah, I would love to see Lily every day, but I recognise I have to share Lily with her mother and I won’t take that away from either of them.”

“That’s truly beautiful, Ash.” Ok, Luke doesn’t know how that nickname came out. “I’m glad I’m representing you. I will get you that at least. I’ll make sure you can still see your daughter regularly.”

Although his words were sappy, Luke didn’t regret them one bit, because Ashton flashed him a breathtaking smile, his dimples prominent on his cheeks, and shit, Luke stop thinking about kissing him.

Sadly, Ashton’s smile disappeared and was replaced with a frown. Luke noticed the older man’s finger lightly tracing around the rim of the mug.

“B-But can you be sure of that, Luke? Courts are always biased towards mothers, which means I’m well and truly fucked! The court is going to think I’m a shit dad for all the things Brittany will say about me not being there often and being at work all the time. They’re going to slaughter me in court!” Luke’s heart nearly broke when he heard Ashton sniffle, his head now hung down, curls over his eyes, before he continued. “Maybe I really am a shit dad. Maybe I deserve this.”

Sighing softly, Luke placed his mug of coffee down on the small table in front of the couch and turned his body to fully face Ashton. He prised the older man’s mug from his grip too, popping it down next to his mug.

“Hey, Ash, look at me.” Luke watched as Ashton’s eyes were revealed from under his curls, eyes brimming with tears that were yet to be spilled. “That’s not true at all. You’re not a shit dad. I’ve never seen anyone love someone as much as you love Lily. You treat her with respect and how a child should be treated by their parents or guardians. Ok, yes courts are often biased towards mothers, but I’ve won cases for single fathers like you before, people in the same position that you’re in now. The court won’t stop someone as loving as you from seeing their child regularly and I’m going to make sure they see it. Fuck what Brittany and her lawyer say, that doesn’t matter if we counteract every last bit and prove it wrong. Because they are wrong, Ashton. They’re so, so wrong. I need you to see that.”

Luke’s words seemed to have a great impact on Ashton, as some tears spilled over his eyelids and ran down his cheeks, the man brushing them away as quickly as he could, like he was ashamed of crying in front of Luke.

When Ashton glanced at Luke again, he was shuffling towards the blue eyed man, arms wide as he fell against Luke’s chest, snuggling into the crook of Luke’s neck.

“God, Luke, you’re an angel. I don’t care if you’re only saying that shit, because I’m paying you, but fuck, I needed to hear that. I needed that so badly. Thank you.”

Luke’s arms circled Ashton’s back and the way they fit together was slightly awkward in the position they were in, as Luke’s feet were curled underneath his body and Ashton had blindly flung himself at Luke for comfort. But it was oh so perfect and that made Luke lean into Ashton more, holding him tighter, breathing him in, no matter how much his feet were aching underneath him.

It didn’t even shock him that much when the thought of liking and falling for Ashton appeared in his mind. In fact, in that moment he embraced it, just like he was embracing Ashton in his arms.

\--

It was an off day for Luke as he was spending his time cooped in his office in the town, a few days after his last meeting with Ashton. He had his laptop open on his desk and his usual mug of coffee just off to the side. There was various things he needed to do alone to benefit his career, as well as wrapping things up from previous cases.

It startled him slightly when there was a buzz at the door, Luke immediately letting whoever came to visit him into the office, smartening up in case it was a potential client for the future.

“I see you’ve done absolutely nothing to this place since I last saw you, Luke. I would’ve thought you’d got bored and redecorated by now.”

On hearing the voice, Luke rolled his eyes and glanced up to see one of his friends, a fellow lawyer, clearly not on a case, as he was dressed down in ripped black skinny jeans and a skull t-shirt. That was nothing new, but the mop of hair on his head was now blue, something which Luke hadn’t seen on the man.

“Alex, seriously, what have I said about turning up unannounced? What if I’d been in the middle of a serious meeting?”

Alex shrugged, flopping down in the seat in front of Luke and placing his feet up on Luke’s desk once he’d pushed the lid of Luke’s laptop down. “Eh, I thought I’d try my luck and you haven’t got a meeting so all’s good, man.”

Luke ended up quickly making Alex a coffee at his request, before the two fell into conversation about their jobs. Alex worked as a sole practitioner like Luke, but specialised in divorce cases.

“I’m sure you’re working on a case now, Luke. How’s that going? Another custody battle?”

Luke nodded, keeping his usual confidentiality, even from Alex, when he spoke. “Yeah, I’m working with a single father to try and keep joint custody of his daughter. His ex-wife’s trying to be the sole custodian, but it’s truly ridiculous. The father deserves it so much, Alex, he’s such a good dad.”

The blue haired man raised an eyebrow slightly at Luke’s words, and shit, was Luke busted? Alex knew him too well and could probably sense there was more to it than what he was saying.

“Is that it?”

Luke sighed and decided to just go on and tell Alex; he owed him that much after Alex had told him all about his life. “I kinda think I’m falling for him. He’s just such a great guy and I can’t help it. His daughter is just so adorable and she called me Papa, Alex. It just made me, I don’t know, feel a bit special, despite the horrible feeling it gave me.”

“I know the feeling, mate. That’s what it was like with me when I started having feelings for Jack. I knew I was only his divorce lawyer and I was there to help him out, make sure he got his share of the wealth and whatever else, but he was so charming and fuck, he didn’t even like guys. I screwed that case up so bad, because of my feelings, Luke. When I told Jack, he just started to blank me more, I mean you know this, I’ve told you, but it messed with my head and I fucked it all up for Jack.” The blue haired man paused and Luke could see him analysing his facial expression right now. “I’m not trying to scare you, but your duty is to the client. Don’t mess this guy’s life up or the case, just because of your feelings. Yes, of course your feelings are valid, but at least wait until after the case is done, before you even think about making a move. Push them away for now and don’t think about it.”

After Alex’s speech, Luke knew he had a lot to think about.

\--

Luke had been staring at the ceiling of his bedroom for the past half an hour and he didn’t know what to do.

As soon as he’d finished chatting with Alex (the conversation had luckily gone onto something other than work), he’d decided to turn in for the day and went straight home, somehow ending up here, sprawled out on his bed.

All he could think about was Ashton and Lily. He knew he liked Ashton that was for sure. He was definitely falling in love with him and he couldn’t stop himself if he carried on the way he was, which was why Luke decided he needed to distance himself from Ashton.

If the example of Alex and Jack had taught him anything, he needed to ensure he didn’t lose this case for his client. He was not going to fuck up Ashton’s chances of seeing Lily just because Luke couldn’t stop himself from wanting to be with him. That was just not happening.

So, as he finally rose from his bed and headed towards the kitchen to eat, he couldn’t help but wonder how fucking hard it was going to be to forget about his feelings for Ashton and to push them aside.

\--

The next morning, Luke was woken up by his phone ringing. So, he quickly leaned over to grab his phone, not bothering to check the caller ID, before answering.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Luke! It’s Ashton."

If that didn’t make Luke’s heart stutter, before practically stopping in his chest, then he didn’t know what ever could.

"Oh, hi, Ashton. What do you want?" Luke’s voice was firm; he didn’t want to start betraying his duty. Remember what happened with Alex, he kept telling himself.

"Well, I was just wondering if you’d like to come over. I-I mean Lily is here today and we were going to go down to the beach for a little while, and I’d mean a lot to m- Lily if you could come, you know? She’s still getting used to you, but she won’t stop talking about the day you looked after her. Of course we can do any of your lawyery things too, but ha, you deserve a little time out. So, what do you say?" Ashton sounded so cheerful, but also slightly nervous, which threw Luke off a bit, but he knew what he had to do.

"Sorry, Ashton, I can’t. I’ve got work to do. When you want to do some ‘lawyery’ things then give me a call." 

The line was silent for a few seconds, which made Luke wonder if Ashton had hung up.

"Oh." And now Luke felt like shit, because he could practically feel Ashton’s dejection. "That’s, uh, okay, Luke. Don’t worry. I’m being unprofessional. It’s my fault, sorry. Yeah, again, don’t worry. It’s all good. I’m going to go now. I’ll ring you later, maybe. Bye."

Ashton had actually hung up that time, and Luke was feeling the impact from Ashton’s babbling. Fuck, he felt like a horrible person. He was too blunt and he totally mocked Ashton at one point. 

The lawyer thought to himself about how he needed to do this, how he has to distance himself from Ashton otherwise he won’t get Lily. He will fuck it all up, otherwise.

Even though his words reassured him a little, he couldn’t help it when he threw his phone across the room in anger with himself.

\--

Luke didn’t end up seeing Ashton in person (they spoke on the phone on the odd occasion when Luke needed some information from him, or Ashton needed a slight bit of advice) until about two weeks after his revelation about keeping his distance.

The lawyer was at Ashton’s house, as per usual, after his client had invited him over for a meeting, partly because the letter about the final court hearing had come in the post, so he needed to inform Luke on the date and all those details.

To say Luke was feeling nervous was an understatement. The twenty-six year old was panicking inside at seeing Ashton for the first time in two weeks, especially after completely brushing him off the last time he’d tried to arrange something. It was honestly killing him inside, but he knew it was for the best; he needed to be on top of his game and not get distracted by Ashton.

Trying not to be distracted by Ashton was proving a tough thing to follow though, as the older man was wearing a maroon sweater, making him look fucking adorable, as well as a pair of thigh hugging skinny jeans, and his glasses were atop his nose. Luke was simply trying to not look at him, but that was hard considering they were about a metre away from each other and were talking about the final court hearing.

“It’s really soon, Luke. It’s kind of making me a bit nervous.” Ashton was making sweater paws with his hands and shit, if that was not the most adorable thing. “Aren’t final court hearings usually a lot further away? I mean, I read that sometimes it can be up to a year after the interim, but it’s only been like a month so far and then the extra two now until the final. I feel like I’m going to wake up tomorrow and somehow it’ll already be upon us.”

Luke nodded, creating his professional composure. If he acted naturally, he’d end up comforting Ashton like he did a few weeks before. “A year later is a worst case scenario. The court clearly isn’t that busy.”

After speaking, Luke took to looking up at the sky in hopes of evading conversation with Ashton for a few minutes. The two of them were sat outside on a picnic blanket, Luke’s briefcase with their papers in front of them. It was the evening and the stars were out in the sky, and none of them even came close to Ashton’s beauty in Luke’s eyes, but that thought was quickly pushed away.

“Lily’s missed you these past few weeks,” Ashton said, into the silence. “All she keeps going on about is how much she wishes you were there with her when she played with her teddies, or when we went to the beach, she was asking why you didn’t want to come play with her. I told her you were busy, but she was just so sad, Luke.”

A frown appeared on Luke’s face, as he looked at Ashton, seeing the man’s hazel eyes gazing down at his feet, something which seemed to be becoming a trend with him.

“Shit, what am I saying? I’m sorry. I’m not trying to make you feel bad at all, Luke, but Lily loves you. Heck, she called you Papa once, said you were like her other daddy, wishes you were her other daddy…” Ashton’s speech trailed off, turning his head up to face Luke, who was still looking at him with avid curiosity. “You’re just so natural around her and I guess she needed that. She needed someone to look up to, since I don’t exactly get ‘Number One Dad Ever Award.’”

Oh how badly Luke wanted to protest at the last part of Ashton’s speech. He wanted so badly to show him how wrong he was. The blond refrained though; he had to be professional, or else Ashton would lose Lily. He wasn’t going to make this like Alex and Jack. He was not going to make that mistake.

Luke doesn’t say anything in response, just looks away from Ashton and back up to the sky. It was the only way for him to stop himself from getting closer to Ashton.

A hand was suddenly placed on his shoulder (and wow, Ashton’s hands were so huge and great) before Luke even had a chance of a second thought. “Luke, are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

The pure confusion and sadness in the older man’s voice sent red flags to his brain, because this was all his fault, but it had to be this way, at least until the case was over. He had to keep Ashton at arm’s length, a professional distance.

“I’m fine, Mr Irwin.” Ashton’s hand flinched on Luke’s shoulders at that. “I’m just thinking about case details.”

“Forget the case a minute, you deserve a break.” A dimpled smile was being sent his way, when he turned to look at Ashton and the man seemed to be looming closer to him, like he wanted to hug. “I can get us some food, if you like, whatever you want. I have a lot of-”

“It’s okay. I probably best be off now anyway. I’ll call you to arrange our next meeting soon, or you can let me know. Thank you.” Luke felt like it wasn’t him speaking deep down and he stood to take his leave.

Ashton was still sat down on the picnic blanket and was staring up at Luke with wide hazel eyes. His hand was still hovering in the place Luke’s shoulder was merely a few seconds before and he looked extremely startled and confused.

Leaning over Ashton to grab his briefcase, Luke decided to show himself out, since Ashton didn’t seem to be moving anytime soon. He left the house in a hurry, acting like he didn’t hear Ashton’s choke on what sounded like a sob.

Luke felt like he’d just extinguished the fucking sun.

\--

“For fucks sake! I’ve literally been in first the whole race and then that fucking blue shell comes out of nowhere. I hate this game.”

Michael’s words came out above what should be considered an inside voice, but Luke honestly didn’t care at that point in time, as he’d made his way past Michael’s character and into first place.

It was a rare day for the lawyer, as he and his two best friends all had the day off, so could hang out and just relax for the day. They were all at Luke’s house, and Calum and Michael had both made themselves extremely comfortable by draping themselves across Luke’s couches.

The race was over after about another minute and Luke was named the victor of that race, which gave Michael something to swear about for the next few seconds, until the results of the entire Grand Prix came up and named him the winner.

While Michael was rubbing in his winning in both Luke’s and Calum’s faces, there was a sharp knock at the door, leading Luke to head out to it, his friends’ bickering fading out behind him.

When he opened the door, he didn’t expect to see a frantic looking Ashton and a cheerful Lily stood on his doorstep. The pair had never been to Luke’s house, but he had given them his address just in case it was needed.

“Thank God, Luke. I know I should’ve called before coming over, but I got called into work again and I didn’t know who to go to and I completely panicked, because it was so last minute. Would you be able to look after Lily for a few hours?” Ashton’s ramblings almost made Luke forget that the last time he’d seen the man (about a week ago) he’d completely brushed him off in any way possible.

“Um, I don’t know about that, Ashton. You see-”

“Hey, Luke, what’s taking you so- oh.”

Calum appeared out of nowhere behind him and shit, could he go away? Michael ended up showing up too, peeking over Calum’s shoulder.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realise you had company. Don’t worry, I’ll find someone else to look after Lily. It’s okay.” Ashton shook his head, before turning around to leave. Luke tried to ignore the fact Lily was looking up at him with wide eyes.

“We don’t mind looking after her at all!” Michael yelled after Ashton and Luke wanted to hit him. When Ashton turned back to look at him, Michael continued. “I’m Michael by the way and this is Calum. We’re Luke’s friends. I’m sure Luke doesn’t mind, do you, mate?”

Ok, Luke was definitely going to hit Michael when they went back inside. This was going to fuck up the distance he’d worked so hard to make, but then again, Michael and Calum were willing to look after Lily, which meant Luke could be casual and not allow the girl to get too close.

“Yeah, don’t worry, Ashton. We’ll look after Lily. Just pick her up from here later.” Luke sighed, before he spoke, which didn’t go unnoticed by Ashton in front of him, as he looked to the ground.

“Thanks, guys.” The older man smiled. “Lily, be good for Luke and his friends, okay?”

Ashton gave his daughter a quick kiss on the forehead, before he was rushing off back away from the house. Lily was still glaring up at Luke.

“Hey, sweetheart. I’m Michael. I like your teddies.” Lily turned away from Luke to pay attention to Michael. Luke was glad.

“Hi! I’m Lily! I like your hair. It’s bright pink like my favourite _My Little Pony_.”

Somehow, Michael and Lily started avidly taking about _My Little Pony_ and walked into the house, before Calum and Luke. Just as Luke was about to follow, Calum stopped him with a hand on his chest, forcing him to stay where he was.

“Is that your current client?” Luke nodded. “There was some tension with you two. I don’t know what’s happened, but at least push it away for his daughter’s sake.”

Calum finally followed Michael and Lily into the living room, and Luke had no choice but to follow. The blond distanced himself from the group, trying his hardest to avoid Lily and putting any more ideals into her head.

That went to shit though, as after a while of chatting to Michael and Calum, she was running over to Luke, one of her teddies clung in her little fist.

“I missed you, Lukey. I haven’t seen you in weeks. Where have you been? Daddy has been extra sad too, although he wouldn’t admit it to me. I can tell when Daddy’s sad though.”

While Lily was talking to him, he could see Calum and Michael pretending to converse where they were sat, but could tell they were nosing into his chat. He knew they were partly curious and were probably trying to look out for Luke ultimately.

“I’ve just been busy. Got all my work things to do. I’m sorry.” And he actually was very sorry. If only Luke had met Ashton and Lily in different circumstances.

“Oh, that’s okay! I know you grownups have lots of stuff to do, like Daddy when he gets called to work sometimes, but that’s okay, ‘cause right now I get to spend time with you, Papa Lukey!”

Lily’s words were said with a ton of innocence and she obviously didn’t see anything wrong with her statement. Luke froze up at it; clearly she still had this idea that Luke was a father figure. The blond needed to escape this conversation now, as like last time, he couldn’t bring himself to stop Lily, and he definitely wasn’t going to encourage it.

“Hey, Lily, do you wanna play this cool game? It’s got unicorns in it.”

At the sound of Michael’s voice, Lily ran over to where Michael and Calum were and the two obviously heard what was said and saw Luke’s lack of comfort, so decided to bail him out of that situation. The looks they gave him though meant that later he would be spilling all to them.

That’s how the rest of the day went: Michael and Calum playing around with Lily, Luke occasionally joining in as long as one or both of his best friends were present to avoid the incident like earlier. They watched a couple of films too of Lily’s choice and the girl wanted to sit next to Luke for those, so the blond had to indulge in that, acting like he wasn’t totally comfortable with how Lily leant into him and how it made him feel like he was a part of her and Ashton’s little family, despite the man not being present at the time.

Ashton eventually turned up just as it was coming into the evening, and somehow, Calum and Michael (even Lily) managed to coax him inside for some food and a chat.

Luke sat in the corner of his living room away from everyone else, while Calum and Michael were getting on extremely well with Ashton, who had Lily curled up in his lap, occasionally deciding to enter conversation with a little statement of her own. That led to coos from everyone in that side of the room.

At some point, Luke overheard the group talking about past relationships and Ashton even mentioned an ex-boyfriend, followed by his sexuality being bisexual. That shouldn’t have made Luke as happy as it did, but it didn’t matter now. 

The group even managed to get Luke to start chatting eventually, and the blond tried to evade any speech aimed at him from Ashton or Lily instead only responding to Calum or Michael. He believed this didn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the group, and that assumption was correct, as when he went into the kitchen to refill his glass, he was followed by Ashton.

"What’s your problem?" Luke turned to see that Ashton had gently pushed the door shut behind him and was now staring at Luke with his arms folded across his chest (fuck those biceps). "You’re ignoring the fuck out of me and ignoring Lily. While I don’t really give a shit whether you speak to me or not, you’re making Lily sad and it’s frankly pissing me off. It’s so obvious too. Did you want me to notice or something?"

Luke wasn’t shocked at all by Ashton’s sudden anger and bitterness. Although it was new for him to see, Ashton was defending his daughter and it was something a father would do. Luke could admire that.

When he couldn’t make up any words to defend himself, Luke took to finishing sorting his drink out, which caused Ashton to let out a scoff.

"Seriously, Luke. What’s going on with you? I don’t understand. Have I done something wrong?" Ashton’s tone trailed off from being all out anger to slight insecurity, so Luke looked to him once again.

"Nothing’s wrong, Ashton." Luke noted how Ashton looked like he didn’t believe a word. "You’re just my client, ok? I was kind enough to look after your daughter today. I don’t owe you any kind of explanation." 

The older man took stepped towards Luke, his hand outstretched, until it fell on Luke’s shoulder. Ashton’s facial expression had changed a lot since a minute or so ago. He was now looking sad and hurt, and his eyes were piercing Luke’s with such intensity.

"That’s bullshit. You’ve been perfectly okay with everything up until recently. What have I done wrong? I can fix it, I promise." Ashton paused, waiting for Luke to reply and when the blond didn’t, his tone of voice changed dramatically. "God damn, please, Luke! Tell me what I’ve done wrong! Why are you barely speaking to me, to Lily? You hardly even look at me. Just fucking tell me, Luke, I can’t take this."

"Just drop it, Ashton, it’s-" 

"If you say it’s nothing, I will literally punch you in the face." Ashton’s eyes bore into his still and Luke couldn’t look away. "It’s clearly fucking something. I can’t take you being rude to my daughter like this. You’re supposed to make her feel comfortable. What about me, too? This is so silly. You know I’d never do anything to offend you on purpose. I- I can’t take you ignoring me."

Luke’s heart stuttered in his chest, before he decided to throw his ideals out of the window for a second. His hands moved from his sides and hesitantly came to rest on Ashton’s hips, causing the man to break eye contact with Luke briefly as he tried to comprehend what was going on.

When Ashton’s eyes flickered back to Luke’s, the hazel had darkened slightly and the man didn’t wait another second, because his lips found Luke’s with lightning speed.

The kiss was desperate and Luke was putting all his feelings into it, too engulfed in it to even process at first that Ashton had kissed him, because he clearly wanted to. 

Ashton’s hand that was on Luke’s shoulder was soon combing through the tufts of hair on the back of Luke’s neck, where they ran up into his lazily styled hair.

The kiss had an abrupt end though, when Luke’s hands flew from Ashton’s hips to his chest, so that he could push him away, finally coming to his senses about how wrong and bad it was.

"This can’t happen. There is no way in hell this is happening." Luke paced slightly, his teeth biting down hard on his lip, which only reminded him of his and Ashton’s kiss.

"Why not? Hey, Luke, calm down, it’s fine, don’t worry." Ashton reached out to touch Luke again, but the blond flinched away, moving further away from the elder.

"Because I’m your lawyer! Because this is just wrong on so many levels. I can’t do this with you, Ashton. I won’t fuck this case up." Luke was yelling now; there was no way the other three in the living room didn’t hear him.

"You won’t! You’re a great lawyer, just because we could possibly have a relationship, doesn’t mean-" 

"For fucks sake, Ashton, I don’t feel anything for you. That was just a spur of the moment thing." 

Luke was wrong, so wrong it hurt. He felt so much for Ashton, so fucking much he was pretty sure he was in love with the man now that he thought about it. His constant pushing away only made him fall for him faster in some strange way and now kissing Ashton made Luke feel on top of the world. 

The sad truth was though that Luke still needed to push Ashton away. He was not going to be Alex, and Ashton was not going to be Jack. Luke wasn’t going to fuck the case up, so his and Ashton’s relationship had to stay professional and doing this right now was all he could think of to do that.

There was no time for Luke to even say anymore in that attempt of forcing Ashton away, because the hazel eyed man started to cry and shit, what had Luke done?

"You don’t mean that. Fuck, no, you don’t mean that at all! I don’t care about anything, Luke. I don’t care that you’re my lawyer! I just want to be with you! I want this." Ashton motioned between them both, despite Luke’s distance now. "I want you. Fuck, Luke, I-I just want you."

Luke had to use all his strength to restrain himself from either kissing Ashton again and giving him all that he asked for, or just comforting him and wiping away all his tears, but instead he held back, shaking his head. Ashton sobbed.

Before either of them could get another word in, the door was creaking open and Lily was coming into the room. 

"Daddy, what’s taking you so long?" The girl then seemed to notice Ashton’s tears, although the man was now frantically scrubbing at his eyes, but the tears were still falling. "Why are you crying, Daddy? Are you sad again?"

The girl was blissfully unaware of the scene in front of her and Luke could imagine that Calum and Michael had tried to stop Lily from coming to interrupt them.

"We’re going to go now, sweetie, okay? Can you go put your shoes and coat on?" Ashton ignored Lily’s questions and shuffled her through to the other room, where Michael and Calum were just about to come to the kitchen.

Both Luke’s best friend’s eyes widened and Luke could only assume it was because of Ashton’s tears.

"Thank you for looking after Lily. It was nice to meet you, Calum and Michael." Ashton’s voice was hysterical; Luke could tell he was forcing himself not to sob and to keep a brave face for Lily. "Grab your teddies, Lily. Ok, we’re off then. Bye."

The father and daughter rushed out of the door really quickly and the door slammed behind them, which signalled to Luke just what the fuck he’d done.

Calum and Michael were looking at him now, clearly confused as to what just happened, but Luke ignored them and instead slid down the wall he was stood by until his bum hit the floor and his head was in his knees.

It was only then did he let himself break down in tears, succumbing to the ache in his eyes. He was barely aware when one of his best friends was beside him, probably Calum since he was better than Michael at that stuff. 

"Luke, what happened? Are you okay?" Michael asked, and his voice sounded further away, meaning he was right about Calum being beside him.

Luke gulped down some tears, before he spoke, attempting not to choke on his words. "I-I fucking love him and I messed everything up."

\--

After the event at his house, Luke didn’t see Ashton for a while at all. The man didn’t call him to ask for any advice and Luke didn’t call him to arrange any meetings that could be needed.

Not seeing Ashton did sadden Luke, of course it would, he’d fallen in love with him, but it was his fault this mess had taken place and it was only for the best, as he wouldn’t risk a relationship with Ashton from distracting either of them from the case at hand.

In some kind of ironic way, Luke thought the exact thing he did – push Ashton away to ensure he didn’t lose his head – had caused the result he was trying to avoid. All the lawyer could think about was Ashton now he’d rejected him. He thought about how Ashton kissed him, meaning Luke wasn’t alone in his feelings, but he still couldn’t accept it all. Things had to stay like they were until the case was done and Luke had gotten Ashton the custody he wanted.

Luke had eventually received a call from Ashton after about two weeks and the two men had met up, with Lily too, and had discussed a few things. It had remained strictly professional, and Luke could tell Lily was confused as to why things were that way; Luke would usually be more informal and even play with her for a little while.

That’s how things were currently. Luke had Lily and Ashton at his office in town, finding the more business environment suitable for their chats and their current predicament. Neither of them were willing to face the idea head on and attempt to discuss it through, but Luke was glad in some way; Ashton had gotten his message to back off.

The final court hearing was looming in the distance now; there were only a few more weeks to go. This actually scared Luke a little, something which tended to happen a lot with his court cases. He was totally confident in his efforts, but he couldn’t help but feel the nerves of the whole thing. This time was a bit different though, as his strained relationship with Ashton was proving to be added stress, but had to be.

Right now, Luke was discussing the whole procedure of the court hearing to Ashton, and Lily since she was present. He wanted to ensure they would have a heads up on how everything would go, and of course, remind them in a meeting closer to the time.

“Okay, so at some point, Ashton, you will get cross examined on things you say. They will try to prove you wrong on some things in your statement. They’ll do the same to Brittany on the things she’s said too.” Luke looked at Ashton as he spoke, but the curly haired man was looking anywhere but Luke: the floor, then the lamp, anywhere.

“What’s going on?” Lily’s voice was rather loud into the office space. Ashton turned to look at his daughter. “These meetings have been really boring and sad. Have you two fallen out?”

Luke didn’t know what to say in return to that and he guessed Ashton didn’t either, as neither of them spoke for a moment.

Ashton eventually let out a soft sigh, signalling he was about to speak. “We just need to get on with things, sweetie. Otherwise, Daddy won’t be able to see you often.”

Lily let out a pained sound at that; it was like she didn’t know what her mother was already planning. Maybe she didn’t. “But why does Mummy not want you to see me? I still want to see you. You’re my Daddy and I love you.”

Luke was kind of glad this exchange was happening, as, while it was none of his business fully, Lily’s requests would also be taken into account in court. So if she wanted to see her father more than her mum was aiming for, she could hopefully help sway the judge.

“Don’t worry yourself about that, Lily. It’s going to be okay. That’s why I have Luke working with me.” Ashton spared a glance at Luke for the first time today, and the blond could see how worn down the older man was. This was no surprise. He had been the past few meetings.

“Oh yes! I’m glad Lukey’s here! He’s so nice to me.” Lily spoke like Luke was not sat right in front of her, before she finally looked towards him, her green eyes wide and baring a playful glimmer. “You’re still like my papa!”

That’s when things turned sour. Now, although Luke was not going to say anything once again, and he felt the huge pang in his heart that statement gave him, Ashton had decided that he wasn’t having it anymore.

“Lily, enough with that.” Ashton’s voice was stern, and his daughter, even Luke, gaped at him with confusion and shock. “Luke’s not your papa. He’s just my lawyer, okay? I’m sure you calling him that makes him uncomfortable. Please don’t do it.”

Lily briefly glanced at Luke with watery eyes, before she looked back towards her father. “Sorry, Daddy. Sorry, Luke.”

Ashton then stood up, ushering Lily up with him. “Okay, we should probably go now then. Bye, Luke.”

As soon as Ashton had finished talking, he was gone out the door, shuffling Lily along in front of him. Luke was left in the ashes of their wake, wondering if there was ever going to be a way to fix all of his mess.

\--

As the court hearing neared, Luke was in his office a lot more. He was determined to ensure he had everything and anything he needed for that day and was extremely prepared.

One thing he didn’t expect appeared when he was heading home from the office in the evening. His route was his normal one, but that didn’t seem to stop an abnormal part of his way to appear.

He practically bumped into Brittany, when he realised that Ashton’s ex-wife was in fact walking towards him on the pavement.

"Shit, sorry." Brittany glanced up at Luke with her words, before halting and fuck, Luke didn’t want this discussion.

"Hello." Wow, okay, way to go, Luke.

"You’re Ashton’s lawyer," Brittany stated, seeming to be processing the situation much like Luke. 

"That I am." Luke offered a raise of his eyebrow too.

Brittany began asking him a few questions, nothing about his side of the case and Luke knew not to let her know any of their planned statements and ideas. She seemed curious into a lot of things, asking about Ashton’s wellbeing.

The conversation didn’t last long; there was tension thick in the air, as they were, in a sense, rivals.

Just as Brittany was about to take her leave, Luke couldn’t help but speak out. "Why are you doing this?" 

The woman in front of him paused her movements at his words. Luke took this time to take her in properly, like he hadn’t seen her before. She had bright green eyes (Luke could see the resemblance to Lily’s) and her hair was straight and ginger. She was honestly beautiful and if Luke wasn’t gay, he could see himself being heavily attracted to her.

A look of confusion spread across Brittany’s face. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, why are you doing this to Ashton? Why do you want to take his daughter pretty much away from him?" Luke’s tone of voice got rather spiteful and he knew he probably shouldn’t be talking to Brittany, let alone yelling at her, but he needed to let this out. "Ashton is a fucking great dad. He loves Lily so much it’s honestly overwhelming to see, and she loves him back with the same intensity. This custody battle is destroying him. Do you know how scared he is of losing? He’s so worried that he’s barely going to see his daughter. 

"He’s such a beautiful person, inside and out. I don’t know how you can do this to him without feeling guilty as hell. I hope you feel good about yourself for doing this."

The venom in Luke’s tone was clearly taken in by Brittany, who didn’t bother to spare him another glance or reply, before she took off down the road.

That attitude only ignited the passion in Luke’s mind that he was going to win this case for Ashton, and Lily. He would do that for Ashton’s, and even Luke’s, possible chance at happiness depended on it.

\--

By the time the night before the final court hearing came around, Luke just wanted it over and done with. He couldn’t handle the tension between him and Ashton anymore and it’d been a long amount of weeks since their predicament in Luke’s kitchen.

To try and help him relax a little, Luke had Michael, Calum and even Alex around for the day. It was now late evening though, and the three were preparing to leave.

Michael and Calum were already halfway out of the door, umbrellas up due to the pouring rain, when they waved Luke goodbye and flashed him a smile Luke could only decipher as containing pity; he’d told them both all about the situation with Ashton, without giving out all the details on the case.

Their leave left Luke alone with Alex and this was the first time he’d been alone with the blue haired man since their chat in Luke’s office. The blond could tell Alex knew something was up.

Alex let out a sigh and pulled Luke into an unexpected hug. “I know it’s hard, Luke. God, I really do. I’m sorry if I caused all this tension. I really didn’t mean to scare you when I told you about Jack and me. It was just a bit of advice, you know? Something to look to as a possibility, albeit the worst one.”

It seemed like Luke didn’t even need to explain himself to Alex, before he was offered some comforting words, but he did anyway, when he and Alex ended their hug. “We kissed and I had to push him away. I told him I felt nothing, and the worst thing is I’m so in love with him it hurts. He even told me he wanted me, Alex. My feelings were reciprocated, maybe not on the same level, but I still rejected him. I had to make sure I didn’t fuck this up.”

“I know it’s tough, but you did the right thing. Who knows what could’ve happened if you’d got too engrossed in a relationship? The opposition lawyer could’ve even found out and used that against your client in court. See how things turn out after tomorrow, Luke. You never know, eh?”

The younger lawyer nodded at his friend’s words, before Alex was saying his goodbyes and exiting the house, leading Luke to sigh and brush a shaky hand through his hair. At least his friends could calm him down for a little while.

As soon as he’d locked the door, Luke started to get ready to go to bed. There was no point him staying up any longer, as he’d only over think things and possibly end up forgetting points for his case. He was meeting Ashton a bit earlier than the meeting in the morning anyway, so that they could go over the procedure quickly again and ensure Ashton knew what he was doing.

Just as he was about to hop into bed, however, there was a sharp knocking at the door. Luke sighed, making his way downstairs, assuming it was Michael, Calum or Alex coming back to collect something they’d possibly left behind.

But, oh how wrong he was.

When Luke opened the door, he was met with the sight of Ashton, wearing fuck all for the current heavy weather. The curly haired man was breathing heavily, showing he’d probably ran here stupidly, or possibly rather because he felt like he was unfit to drive (there was an abundance of tears collecting on his cheeks in addition to the rain water).

Luke didn’t know what to say, and Ashton wasn’t saying anything himself, but he couldn’t let the man get drenched outside from the rain, so he stood aside from the doorway, letting the older man enter the house.

Once the door was shut, Ashton suddenly began babbling on. “Fuck, Luke, I’m sorry for just turning up like this, b-but I’m so, so scared. I’m so scared about tomorrow that I’m going to fuck up, or the court’s just going to straight out hate me, and I-I won’t get any fair custody of Lily. I didn’t know where to go and I panicked and ran here. I’m so sorry; I know I shouldn’t have come here.”

Deciding to throw away his and Ashton’s distance that had been present for what seemed like ages now, Luke took a step closer to him, placing his hand softly on his shoulder. Ashton looked at him with red rimmed eyes, tears still dripping wildly from them, mixing in with the raindrops that had also made a home on his cheeks.

“Look, just take a few deep breaths, like this.” Luke breathed deeply in and out to get Ashton to copy, hoping he could calm and reassure the man a bit. “I’ve told you this before, but you’re a great dad. If the court doesn’t notice that, they’re fucking stupid, and I will continue to fight with you for the custody you deserve. I’m not letting them take Lily away from you.”

Ashton was quiet when he decided to speak, a whimper being released from his lips, before his words. “What happened with us, Luke? We got on so well and then…”

The moment Ashton’s voice trailed off, Luke felt ashamed, and was once again reminded it was his fault this had all happened, but then he was reminded of Alex’s words and couldn’t help feel like, hopefully, it was for the best at the time.

When Luke was silent, Ashton took the initiative to talk again. “I-I still want you, Lukey. I can’t help it. I’ve spent all this time, pining over you, wondering what it would be like if you were with me. You’d be the perfect papa to Lily.” The man paused. “Shit, I-I didn’t mean… I’m probably stepping way over the line. Fuck, I mess everything up. Forget I said that, please.”

Luke watched as Ashton turned away from him, glancing down at his feet, his tears now dripping straight down there, as well as his soaking wet clothing.

Although Ashton wanted Luke to forget, Luke couldn’t help but cherish the words and made a decision to throw everything away, and just do this. His hand made its way from Ashton’s shoulder, travelling up the curve of his neck and over his jaw, until it took its resting place on Ashton’s sharp cheek.

“Hey, Ash, look at me.” The lawyer’s soft words managed to coax Ashton into glancing up and away from his feet, eyes now trained on Luke’s. “I’m the one who fucked up, okay? I pushed you away. I tried to ensure things wouldn’t get too personal, and I wouldn’t fuck it all up for you and Lily. I couldn’t live with myself if I was the reason you didn’t get what custody you wanted with Lily. I guess I’m a total idiot, because I’ve been doing the same. Fuck, Ashton, I want you too. I want to be with you. Let me kiss you. Can I kiss you?”

Luke had never seen anyone nod as fast as Ashton’s did, and he quickly leant in, capturing Ashton’s lips with his in seconds.

The kiss was desperate; things went straight to full speed, tongues in each other’s mouths, lips moving rapidly. It was rather sloppy and Ashton was still crying, although Luke thought it was probably out of happiness now, or well he hoped. 

Their hands roamed each other’s bodies like they needed to imprint every groove into their memories, because they’d never get this chance again. It was euphoric in a sense, the way they could reach out and touch each other, like they had waited for so long to do.

Luke’s hands eventually came to rest on Ashton’s hips, much like last time they kissed, as he leant down a little to ensure his and Ashton’s lips could meet well. The older man was a few inches shorter than Luke himself, and that thought rather excited Luke; he liked being taller, it made him feel like he could protect Ashton if needed, despite the hazel eyed man being way more muscular.

Eventually, Luke decided to pull away and he was met with a still rather hysterical looking Ashton, who was gripping tightly onto Luke’s neck. 

Luke gulped, deciding to suggest something he wanted. “We should go upstairs. If you want to that is.” 

Ashton pressed himself closer to Luke at his request, his wet clothes sticking to Luke’s dry ones. “Y-yeah, I want that. I want that so much.”

The two immediately went back to kissing, Luke lifting Ashton off of the ground to carry him upstairs. The kiss got broken for that, but Ashton was sucking eagerly at Luke’s neck, earning him a groan of pleasure from the younger.

Once Luke had entered his bedroom, he fell down onto the bed with Ashton, hovering over the elder, and before he started removing clothing from himself or the other, he ensured he got consent from Ashton again, just to make sure he wasn’t pushing his limits.

Things progressed rather quickly from there and Ashton was soon grasping at Luke with shaky fingers, tears still streaming down his cheeks, sobbing out promises and apologies he didn’t need to give.

At that point, Luke teared up a little too, overwhelmed by Ashton and the sheer pleasure and euphoria of the act they were completing together, uniting them. It may have seemed hasty to some, but to them it was just what they needed; they didn’t feel like they were rushing into anything at all.

Luke felt nothing but love for the man on top of him at that moment, watching him as he whimpered out Luke’s name. 

Ashton was brushing his hands down Luke’s bare torso, when he next had an attempt at a coherent sentence. “Oh fuck, Luke! Shit, I love you, okay? I know this is soon and at a completely inappropriate time, but - fuck, right there - I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t tell you.”

At Ashton’s words, Luke flipped them over and whispered the same thing back to the older, wishing he could stay in the moment forever.

As soon as they came down from their highs, Ashton had basically invited himself to stay over, and Luke cuddled up next to him, wrapping his arms around him to protect him from the world, burying his face into Ashton’s now sweaty curls.

"Everything will be fine tomorrow, Ash. Just you wait."

\--

When Luke woke up the next morning, his and Ashton’s positions had been reversed throughout the night. Instead of the younger man holding tightly onto Ashton, the opposite was now taking place, as Luke had Ashton pressed up against his back, arms securely placed around his waist.

To think about all that happened the night before caused Luke to smile a lot. He couldn’t believe he’d let his barriers down to Ashton and they’d ended up fucking in Luke’s bed. To share such an intimate moment with another person always had a lasting effect on Luke, which was why he didn’t necessarily like one night stands, and hoped Ashton would want to take things further.

Checking the time and finding out it was six o’clock in the morning, the lawyer decided to wake Ashton from his slumber, as the court hearing was at nine and they needed to be ready and there a good half an hour early; it helped emphasise Ashton’s willingness and serious attitude towards the matter.

Luke carefully turned in Ashton’s arms, brushing a hand through his hair as he spoke. “Ash, hey, you need to wake up now.”

It was a beautiful thing to see when Ashton’s eyelids fluttered open and Luke was met with the beautiful hazel he’d become accompanied with.

“Hm, Luke? Am I still dreaming?” One of Ashton’s hands moved from Luke’s back and instead found its way to the blond’s cheek.

“No you’re not, silly. Now come on, we need to get ready. We have to get to court soon and I’m sure you don’t want to miss that.”

Ashton tensed up at the mention of court and his hand abruptly fell from Luke’s face. “Shit! Shit, it fucking is today. Oh God, Luke, and we had sex. We totally fucked last night. This is all too much at once. You were probably looking for a onetime thing, right? I’m probably never going to see you again after today.”

Stopping himself from cutting Ashton off with a kiss, since he didn’t want him to possibly freak out, Luke just hushed the man, gently running his fingers through his hair still. “Yes, court is today, but you’re going to be fine. I’ll go through everything again in a little bit, so you know exactly how stuff is going to go down.” Luke paused. “We also fucked, yes, but I’m not looking for a onetime thing, Ash. Did you not here me last night? I love you, okay? I want to be with you, as long as you want to be with me.”

“Of course I want to be with you. I’ve told you about fifty times.” Ashton giggled after his words and Luke thought he was the most beautiful thing in existence, letting himself kiss Ashton delicately on the nose, which earned him more adorable sounds from Ashton’s lips.

“Good, that worked out well then. Now time to get up, Ash. We’ve gotta get ready.”

Luke shimmied his way out of Ashton’s arms, before sifting through his wardrobe to find a suit to wear. That made him realise that they were going to have to go to Ashton’s so he could grab his clothing.

The lawyer turned to his client, who was blatantly checking Luke out as he went through his clothes. “Ashton, seriously? Get up and stop looking at me like that.”

“What? I can’t help it. You’re standing there in the nude and you’re just, I don’t know, really gorgeous, and I’m having major nostalgia about last night. You really know how to give it good, Luke.” Ashton finally got up as he spoke, wandering over to Luke and encircling his waist with his arms.

Luke felt himself blush. “Shut up, oh my God. Y-You were doing most of the work for a good majority of it, Ash. Seeing you on top of me was the hottest thing.”

“Now, who needs to shut up.” Ashton laughed at Luke’s sudden embarrassment. “Can you lend me some clothes until we can get to my house? Mine are still wet and extremely crumpled up from being flung everywhere.”

Turning around to face Ashton, Luke moved his hands to the older man’s chest, feeling his muscles tense under his touch. A soft blush even appeared on Ashton’s cheeks.

Luke pretended to think about Ashton’s question, although they both knew he’d allow Ashton to borrow some clothes. “I don’t know about that one. You should’ve used an umbrella when you came over.”

“Well, if I hadn’t come over then you wouldn’t have had your dick in my ass, and I wouldn’t have got to please you like I did.” Ashton put a smirk on his face, even though his cheeks were still slightly dusted pink. “Anyway, I can think of a way I can persuade you I’m sure.”

Maybe a short distraction for the two couldn’t go amiss.

\--

Luke and Ashton found themselves at the court room about forty minutes before the hearing was going to start. Somehow, they’d ended up making out heavily for around twenty minutes, before Luke had shuffled them along, reminding Ashton about the impending court session.

There was a professional aura around Luke now they were present in the building; he knew he couldn’t afford to fuck up at the last hurdle, so a professional distance needed to be kept with Ashton until after the meeting.

Making sure to go through everything with Ashton again, the lawyer explained everything in detail and in the order it would likely take place, as sometimes things were a little different. Ashton was taking it all in as he went, fiddling around with the black tie around his neck with his likely nerves. Luke understood that.

Eventually, the two decided to get seated in the court room, and Luke briefly gave Ashton’s hand a squeeze, knowing that would hopefully be enough for the older man for the time being, serving as a short lived dose of comfort.

Inside the room, Brittany and her lawyer were already sat near the front, so Luke and Ashton took seats away from them, allowing them to check things again if needed and they wouldn’t be overheard.

Lily was sat in the front middle with who Luke assumed to be a grandparent or another relative. He voiced his concern to Ashton, who told Luke it was Brittany’s mother, as she was the only person available the evening before to watch Lily. Ashton then told Luke about how he wished his own mother or siblings could be here to support him, but he accepted that they were busy: his mum with work and his siblings in education.

It didn’t take long for their case to be called forward and Luke and Ashton took their seats on one side of the room, while Brittany and her lawyer did the same on the other side.

The court session soon started and things went rather fast, both Ashton and Brittany were cross examined on anything in the statements from the interim hearings had claimed, as well as the typical questions about why they want to look after the child and to see how fit they are too look after them.

Luke even had a chance to object claims from Brittany’s lawyer a few times, as they were coming on really harsh to Ashton, who Luke could see was getting stressed with it all, but Luke had managed to predict the majority of questions. This meant Ashton was fairly prepared for everything being thrown at him and could answer truthfully and hopefully get on the judge’s good side.

It then came to giving the statement and submission of what custody they wanted to the judge again, just in case anything had changed. Luke read out Ashton’s, giving a bit of a talk to go with it, about Ashton’s claim for both joint custody in legal and physical terms.

Brittany’s lawyer then went through her claims and things had changed quite a bit there. Instead of wanting sole custody in both areas, Brittany now wanted the same as Ashton and if Luke didn’t feel Ashton’s happiness radiate off the man he’d be wrong.

This left Luke to wonder why this had suddenly happened. Brittany had been hell bent on ensuring she was the sole custodian to Lily this whole time and suddenly she wants something different. Well, for whatever reason that was, Luke was honestly overjoyed for Ashton, although it sort of made this whole court proceedings pointless, as this was something that could’ve been dealt with outside court between their lawyers.

The judge noticed the change in statement and briefly went over that with them. Of course, despite the fact both parties statements were similar, the judge could still give sole custody to one or the other if they felt that was best, but it was highly unlikely now.

So when it came down to the verdict, it wasn’t a surprise that the two were granted joint physical and legal custody and that their lawyers could work together to draw up a schedule and make sure it worked. Their case was then dismissed and Ashton turned to Luke, tears building in his eyes.

“Did that honestly just happen, Luke? Please tell me that was real.”

Luke sharply nodded, standing up and leading Ashton along with him. They ended up outside the room again with Brittany and her lawyer, because Ashton just felt compelled to talk to her now.

“Shit, Brit, did you just do that? Seriously, thank you. I don’t know what changed your mind or whatever, but I’m so glad you decided to share with me. I’m so happy.” Ashton hesitated, but took his ex-wife into his arms and gave her a hug, obviously extremely overjoyed.

“I’m sorry, Ash. We wouldn’t have had to go through all this if I hadn’t have been an idiot. I was just blinded by my sense of protection for Lily, I didn’t even notice that I was so wrongly pushing you out of the equation. You deserve to see her as much as you do normally, okay?” The two were still hugging, before Brittany gave Luke a smile over Ashton’s shoulder, winking at him softly. “As for reasoning, I don’t know, I just guess I talked some sense into myself.”

They eventually stopped hugging and started a conversation, so Luke took it upon himself to speak with Brittany’s lawyer to arrange any possible time they could sit down with their clients and draw up arrangements and all that stuff. That didn’t take too long, as Luke didn’t need to get the lawyer’s number, due to the fact he already had it.

He was about to go back over to Ashton when Brittany came over to her lawyer, pausing by Luke to whisper to him. “Thank you for taking care of him and Lily. She’s spoken a lot about you. You really opened my eyes too, so thanks, Luke.”

Luke didn’t even need to question how she knew his name, since Lily had obviously told her. He instead gave her a curt nod, before leaving and returning to Ashton, who was smiling widely at him, dimples deep into his cheeks.

“Brit said I could have Lily today, so I was thinking that, if you want to, you could come out with us to celebrate.” Ashton paused, rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “Maybe t-this could also be a first date for us. I mean, I know Lily’s gunna be there, but it seems like the perfect occasion.”

Smiling just as wide as Ashton, Luke nodded, lightly brushing his fingers over the older man’s. “That’d be great, Ash. I need to apologise to Lily anyway. I’ve been a right dick. How about we get some ice cream? It’ll be my treat, a way to say sorry for all the shit I’ve done.”

The hazel eyed man seemed like he was about to respond to Luke, but Lily came running out the door with her grandmother. She went over to Brittany first since she was nearest the door and hugged her mum tightly, before she was rushing over to where Luke and Ashton were stood, her blond curls flailing wildly.

“Daddy, Daddy, Daddy! Mummy said I’m staying with you today.” Lily held her arms out like she wanted to be picked up, so Ashton lifted his daughter into his arms, resting her on his hip. Lily then turned to Luke. “Hi, Lukey! Are you coming with us?”

“Yeah, I am, sweetie. How does ice cream sound? You and your daddy here deserve a nice treat.” Lily squealed at Luke’s suggestion rapidly nodding.

The three of them then went out for ice cream, and things were utterly blissful for them all.

\--

“Lily, people are going to be arriving soon. You need to come downstairs!”

Luke had been stressing out all day over this party. It was Lily’s seventh birthday and she was having a few of her friends around to play in the garden.

“Babe, you seriously need to calm down. She’ll be fine. You know how she gets.” Ashton came up behind Luke, hugging his waist from behind.

Things had been pretty plain sailing for Luke and Ashton since the court hearing; it’d been about two and a half years since then. They’d dated for a year and a half, Luke moving in with Ashton and Lily after a few months, before Ashton had proposed to Luke one morning out of nowhere without even having picked out an engagement ring.

The two’s wedding was looming in the distance, only about a month away, and they couldn’t have been happier to make their little family that little bit more official. They had even been thinking about adopting, or getting a surrogate to have another child, but for now, Lily was enough for the two of them.

Turning around in his fiancé’s arms, Luke pecked him on the lips softly, wondering how he still felt that same euphoria anytime they were near. Ashton was it for him, and he couldn’t imagine himself with anyone else.

Suddenly, Lily came bounding down the stairs, dressed in her favourite princess dress (it was a fancy dress party) and had one of her teddies clasped in her hand. “I’m here, Papa. You can stop yelling now!”

Luke chuckled, picking her up. “Sorry, sweetheart. I just wanted to make sure you got here, before your friends turned up. Gotta make sure they see how pretty you look as a princess.”

“I’m a kickass princess though, yeah? That’s what Mikey told me!”

Soon, Lily was running around the garden with all her friends, playing whatever game they fancied. Brittany was watching over the children (Ashton and her got along well now too, and she was more than supportive of Luke and Ashton’s relationship), along with Michael and Calum, who had come over especially too. Alex was even lounging in the corner of the room, chatting along with one of the children’s parents about God knows what.

Luke and Ashton were in their own little bubble, while they had a moment to sit down. They were in the kitchen, getting ready to prepare Lily’s birthday cake, so they could sing their daughter (yes Luke referred to Lily as his daughter, albeit he was going to be only her step-father, but she meant more to him than that).

“I can’t believe we’re getting married soon, Luke. I’m so glad this all worked out. You’re the best papa for Lily and you’re the best soon-to-be husband for me. God, I love you so much.” Ashton pulled Luke closer into him, as the younger was sat on his lap, while they waited for the right moment to light the cake’s candles and take it into the garden.

“Jesus, Ash, no need to get sentimental, I’m going to cry.” Luke faked crying, causing Ashton to giggle and smack his arm lightly. “No, but seriously, I love you too, and our little family.”

And about a year later, their little family would expand and a beautiful baby boy would be welcomed with open arms into it.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to leave a comment and/or kudos or hit me up on Tumblr (links in the beginning note) :)


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